If you’ve arrived here searching for practical, usable advice on how to navigate an elimination diet or a set of food restrictions for someone you love, thank you. Just the fact that you’re willing to try is a show of generosity and compassion that person will not forget. If that person is a child, I can tell you from experience that you are earning that child’s parent’s love and gratitude even as you read this.

Most importantly, before you read any of the posts below: please don’t forget to ask the person for whom you’re cooking about their level of sensitivity. It will be hard for both of you if you go out of your way to cook something that turns out to be dangerous for the person with allergies or sensitivities despite all your hard work. Ask about things like cross-contamination, oils and spices, and brand names of products you bought. No two people following a medically-supervised elimination diet are alike. No two people with celiac disease, lactose intolerance, or nut allergies are alike. Always, always ask.

A final note: if your beloved friend or family member tells you they’d rather bring their own food, please don’t take it personally. Having allergies or needing to follow an elimination diet is daunting. No one wants to leave the party in an ambulance or spend it sick in the bathroom. Just the fact of you offering — and being willing to try! — is kindness enough. Feel free to share this page with that person — maybe I stumbled on something they didn’t know about yet! And don’t forget about my Food That Helped list!

Happy browsing!

Soup Is My Legacy

I hear my daughter Sammi's steps on the stairs before her voice calls out to me. Still, I don't run to

How Have You Never Had KUGEL?

My older daughter, Ronni, ran out of the door of the elementary school one day many years ago with her eyes wide

Your Strange Diet, Day One

There are hundreds of articles on the internet and in parenting and health magazines about what it's like to deal

6 Things Not to Say to a Family on a Medically Restrictive Diet

Between my daughter Sammi's birth and her ninth birthday, she spent nearly all of her life on some kind of

Practicalities of the Chylothorax Diet

The best thing about being forced to eat a fat-free diet for chylothorax is that it is always temporary. The

Lentils I Have Known and Loved

There has so far been no restrictive diet in our strange, medically-fraught life that did not allow for the consumption

Practicalities of the Six Food Elimination Diet

I never wanted to write a recipe blog. Now I feel that I have an obligation to share the practical,

Summer Lunch, “Free”

For many mothers of school-aged children, suddenly having to create on-demand, in-the-moment lunches during the summer is a rude awakening

The Soup

There were several points in her life when we thought Sammi might end up with a feeding tube -- when

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